FOXTROT

"You Can’t Escape Deadly Fate"

Summary:

FOXTROT is an Israeli movie about a family with a son in the military that suffers a tragedy by a quirk of fate. FOXTROT has a striking story with some powerful images and spurts of comedy, but it also has a humanist worldview with some explicit, lewd content and images, that offers a depressing view of the human condition, plus a politically correct attitude toward Israel and its military that seems Anti-Semitic.

Review:

FOXTROT is an Israeli movie about a family with a son in the military that suffers a tragedy by a quirk of fate. FOXTROT has a striking story with some powerful images and spurts of comedy, but it also has a humanist worldview with some explicit, lewd content and images. It offers a depressing view of the human condition, plus a politically correct attitude toward Israel that seems Anti-Semitic.

The movie opens with a middle-aged Israeli couple getting news from the military of their son’s death while on duty. The news devastates the father and especially the mother. Also, the father gets unduly angry with the help the military officials are trying to give him.

The father gets even more angry when the military officials learn that the son is still alive. They had the wrong man!

Cut to the isolated rural checkpoint where their son works. Quirks of fate lead to two more tragedies, resulting in a depressing ending that doesn’t offer much comfort.

FOXTROT has a striking story with some powerful images and spurts of comedy. Some of the comedy is surrealistic. For instance, the name of the checkpoint is Foxtrot and in one scene a soldier starts dancing the Foxtrot and then doing other dance moves while caressing his rifle.

However, the movie has a strong humanist worldview. For example, despite a couple, somewhat positive mentions of God, discussion about feeling shame and guilt for having sinned, and a mention of forgiveness, the movie ends on a humanist note of tragedy brought about by a quirk of fate that ultimately offers little comfort. Also, the son tells a lewd, shameful story his father relayed to him, which is illustrated by lewd cartoon images drawn by the son. Finally, the son’s military superiors cover up a tragedy that occurs at the checkpoint. This situation is a politically correct attack on Israel and its military that seems rather Anti-Semitic, because it mostly blames Israel.

Content:

(HH, B, C, PCPC, AbAb, APAP, L, VV, SS, NNN, A, DD, MM):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong humanist worldview with a couple brief positive comments about God and a mention of finding forgiveness at one point, but movie ultimately offers a bleak, somewhat surrealistic view where God is either a monster, not benevolent or does not exist, though grieving parents clearly love their son and daughter, plus a somewhat politically correct, Anti-Semitic, negative, anti-patriotic view of Israel and its military where the military covers up an accidental killing of four young Arab civilians (two heterosexual couples), and the Jewish family is punished for their sins by a surrealistic quirk of fate;

Foul Language:

Four obscenities (one “s” word) and character exclaims “God forbid!”;

Violence:

Brief strong and some light violence includes a scene where Israeli soldier thinks he sees a grenade and one of his fellow soldiers guarding a checkpoint on an isolated rural road machine guns to death two civilian Arab couples in a car, plus woman feints, man falls when he gets some shocking news, cartoon images of woman on medical devices, and it’s implied she dies, distraught man shoves brother against wall after brother keeps touching him to restrain and comfort him, and one scene implies man kicks family dog and later wife says dog has internal bleeding;

Sex:

Depicted cartoon foreplay in one scene, a lewd comic book art in another panel depicts an aroused man, an irreverent story about a teenager who becomes obsessed with a nudie magazine, and references to self-abuse;

Nudity:

Total male genital nudity in a cartoon drawing, upper female nudity in another drawing, and cartoon images of female breasts with X’s over the woman’s nipples;

Alcohol Use:

Brief alcohol use;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Smoking tobacco and brief marijuana smoking in one scene; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Strong miscellaneous immorality includes army coverup involves deceit, army officer rationalizes the coverup, and talk about guilt with ultimately no sign of forgiveness, man gets unduly angry at soldiers who are just trying to do their duty during a tense and tragic situation, and there’s a lewd story about a teenager who trades his family’s Holocaust Bible for a nudie magazine.

In Brief:

FOXTROT is an Israeli drama with some surrealistic comedy and irony inserted. The movie opens with a middle-aged Israeli couple getting news from the military of their son’s death while on duty. The news devastates the father and especially the mother. Also, the father gets unduly angry with the military officials who are trying to help him. The father gets even more angry when the military officials learn that the son is still alive. They had the wrong man! Cut to the isolated rural checkpoint where their son works. Quirks of fate lead to two more tragedies, resulting in a depressing ending that doesn’t offer comfort.

FOXTROT has a striking story with some powerful images and spurts of comedy. Some of the comedy is surrealistic. However, despite a couple redemptive elements, the movie has a strong humanist worldview. It ends on a humanist note of tragedy brought about by a quirk of fate that offers little comfort. There’s also some lewd, explicit content in one sequence. Finally, FOXTROT contains a politically correct attitude toward Israel and its military that seems somewhat Anti-Semitic.